Handsolo said:
I agree with much of what you say 13Alpha and have recently returned to rail travel due to the security farce at UK airports. The only thing I would mention is that I often find first class rail travel to be more expensive than a domestic flight and if you are in the zoo that is standard class then the train can be a living hell far worse than Heathrow on a bad day, especially if you are not boarding at the originating station!
Yes agreed. At peak times cheap fares are hard to come by on the trains.
Piltdown Man said:
So, if you take Joe Public who wants to travel from say from Glasgow to Nice they'll be expected to take the train to Euston or Kings Cross. Then they'll take a tube to Paddington. Then they'll cough up to travel to LHR. Only now will they make real progress towards their final destination. It's a shame the trains are full, overpriced and that it's a real shag moving around the station concourses in London avoiding the pimps and addicts, because I reckon that poeple will choose to avoid LHR and go via CDG, FRA, AMS etc. Anywhere but LHR?
Or maybe, just maybe, it would result in more direct European scheduled and charter flights from regional airports ?
Doctor Cruces said:
I once decided to be a bit greener and use the train for the majority of my journey to work. Out of 15 work days travelled it didn't turn up at all on three occasions, was a bit late twice and very late on another three, making me late for work on eight out of 15 days.
True, and I travel on commuter/cross-country trains sometimes as well, and they suck. But the point of the article was about getting people who're travelling between Glasgow/Edinburgh/Manchester/Newcastle and London out of planes to reduce the need for expansion at the London airports, and what I was suggesting was that for those destinations taking the train already actually compares quite well.
Alex said:
13 alpha, that is a VERY selective comparison.
Yes, but it's the only comparison I've got any experience of, and it's directly relevant to the article. I don't live in Reading and work in Peterborough, and making that type of journey by train is probably a complete nightmare - but that's not what the Tories were talking about.
For once I think I agree with a Conservative policy. I must be getting old.
13Alpha